Disposable absorbent products, such as diapers, training pants, and incontinence articles typically include stretchable materials, such as elastic strands, in the waist region and the cuff regions to provide a snug fit and a good seal of the article. Pant-type absorbent articles further include stretchable materials in the side portions for easy application and removal of the article and for sustained fit of the article. Stretchable materials have also been used in the ear portions of disposable diapers for adjustable fit of the article. However, it would be desirable to have materials that exhibit substantially plastic behavior prior to and during a shaping strain cycle, for example, when the article is initially put on a wearer, yet exhibit substantially elastic behavior after this initial shaping or donning strain cycle on the article. In this way, such desirable absorbent articles would have the ability to shape or size to the wearer to better fit conform to a wearer's body shape, yet have the ability to maintain the required tension when on a wearer to achieve sustained fit and prevent sagging and/or drooping of the article. Absorbent articles of this kind would allow the user or wearer to “permanently” adjust various areas of the absorbent article, e.g., the crotch or waist region of a diaper, either before or during the application of the article to the wearer, to adapt the article to a wearer's body shape. In the case of a diaper, better fit and comfort can also impart better functional performance such as reduced leakage since the diaper would be better fitting. Such features have heretofore not been available for absorbent articles.
There are various approaches to providing desirable stretchable properties in targeted areas of absorbent articles. Stretchable materials may be films or nonwoven fibrous webs that include elastomeric materials. Typically, such materials are stretchable in at least one, and possibly multiple, directions. However, because the films or webs are made entirely of elastomeric materials, they are relatively expensive, and they tend to have more drag on the skin surface, resulting in discomfort to a wearer of the article. Also, because the materials are elastomeric, any applied strain is substantially recovered when the force leading to the strain is removed. Sometimes, the stretchable films are laminated to one or more layers of nonwoven webs. Since typical nonwoven webs typically are made of thermoplastic fibers, they have very limited stretchability and, the resulting laminates provide considerable resistance to stretch without additional processing. It is necessary to reduce this resistance substantially in order to make functional stretch laminates. As a result, such materials, have limited ability to shape, size or conform to the particularities of the wearer's anatomy upon application.
Other approaches to make stretchable materials are also known, including: stretch-bonded laminates (SBL) and necked-bonded laminates (NBL). Stretch bonded laminates are made by stretching an elastomeric material in the machine direction (MD), laminating it to one or more nonwoven substrates while it is in the stretched state, and releasing the tension in the elastomeric material so that the nonwovens gather and take on a puckered shape. Necked-bonded laminates are made by first stretching a nonwoven substrate in the machine direction such that it necks (i.e., reduces its dimension) at least in the cross machine direction (CD), then bonding the elastomeric material to the substrate while the substrate is still in the stretched, necked state. This laminate will be stretchable in the CD, at least up to the original width of the nonwoven before it was necked. Combinations of stretch bonding and neck bonding have also been known to deliver stretch in both MD and CD directions. In these approaches, at least one of the components is in a tensioned (i.e., stretched) state when the components of the laminates are joined together. Again, these materials cannot be used in absorbent articles to impart sizing or shaping features desired by users and wearers of absorbent articles.
Zero strain stretch laminates are also known. The zero strain stretch laminates are made by bonding an elastomer to a nonwoven while both are in an unstrained state. The laminates are then incrementally stretched to impart stretch properties. The incrementally stretched laminates are stretchable only to the extent afforded by the non-recovered (i.e., residual) extensibility of the laminate. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,156,793, issued to Buell et al., discloses a method for incrementally stretching an elastomer-nonwoven laminate web, in a non-uniform manner, to impart elasticity to the resulting laminate. These stretch laminates behave similarly to the materials described previously in that they do not have the inherent ability to be adapted to the size or shape of a wearer.
The art has also provided “elastic” materials by prestraining a substantially plastic film so as to provide films having an elastic-like behavior along at least one axis when subjected to an applied and subsequently released elongation. Such materials, known as Structural Elastic-Like Films (SELF), are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,691,035 to Chappell.
However, in all the approaches above, the materials or laminates are made separately and then incorporated into the absorbent article. For example, the stretch laminates described herein must be cut into the appropriate size and shape, then adhesively attached to the desired location in the product in a process sometimes referred as the “cut-and-slip” process. Because of the different stretch properties required for different elements of the product, it is necessary to make a variety of laminates having different stretchability and cut the laminates to different sizes and shapes. Several cut and slip units may be needed to handle the different stretchability of the stretch laminates and to attach them to different locations of the product. As the number of cut-and-slip units and/or steps multiplies, the process quickly becomes cumbersome, complicated and expensive. These processes are suitable for modern day absorbent article manufacture and are desirable. However, it would therefore be desirable to have absorbent articles having the desired sizing and/or shaping properties, but which can be disposed in or on the absorbent article without the need for such complicated and expensive “cut-and-slip” processes.
One alternative to cut and slip processes used by the art is to print an elastomeric composition onto a substrate. Exemplary disclosures include U.S. Pat. No. 6,531,027 which discusses adhering components of an absorbent article using an adhesive printing process, PCT Application No. 03/039420 which discusses printing first and second elastomeric compositions onto a substrate where the compositions differ in at least one of the following properties: elasticity, melt viscosity, composition, shape, pattern, add-on level, and PCT Application No WO 03/053308, which discusses printing an elastic adhesive onto an extendable substrate to provide a tensioning force during garment wear.
The polymer arts have provided materials with stretch properties that are useful in absorbent article structures. Such materials include:                Isotactic polypropylene with stereoerrors along the polymer chain as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,555,643 and EP 1 256 594 A1;        Blends of isotactic polypropylene and alpha-olefin/propylene copolymers as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,342,565 and 6,500,563 and WO 03/400201; and        Block-like isotactic-atactic copolymers as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,559,262, 6,518,378 and 6,169,151.        
Based on the foregoing, it would be desirable to have absorbent articles with stretchable material having both elastic and plastic properties such that it can be sized or shaped as desired but still retains the desired degree of elasticity to facilitate sustained fit on the wearer. Although not always necessary, it would be desirable to have such a material that can be disposed easily on any specific area of the absorbent article in any desired amount. Additionally, it would be desirable to have such a material or composite having plastic and elastic properties that can be easily placed in discrete, spaced apart areas of the absorbent article via known techniques such as a “cut-and-slip” process.